Phyrexian Tower Discussion

4 days ago

This is pretty sweet list.

I would make it if it wasn't so damn expensive.

As for what needs to be cut, I think these cards can be cut.

1) Amulet of Vigor- None of the lands aside from the shock lands / man-lands need to come in to play tapped. The Amulet is more of combo piece for Primeval Titan and other fast mana combos. If really want untapped mana available for the deck fast and effectively, Mana Rocks seem to be a better alternative than the artifact.

2) Storm Cauldron - Its more of a STAX card and doesn't seem to fit in with a man-land strategy especially when you have to tap mana to activate said Man-Lands. I see the potential synergies with Manabond and Burgeoning but it seems like a risky line to play as it can easily backfire really easily with opponents artifact/enchantment destruction both very prevalent in EDH. The deck seems to get more value out of sacrificing lands more than anything else through Knight of the Reliquary, The Gitrog Monster and Titania, Protector of Argoth. If you are dead set on running a card that can allow you to play 2 lands per turn, Exploration seems like the go-to card here.

3) Gaea's Cradle - To be completely honest, I don't understand why you have this in the 99. With no token generation effects aside from Titania, Protector of Argoth and a lower than average creature count this card is pretty dead most of the time. If you are tapping to activate your man lands to activate the Cradle to get mana, you won't any return from that heavy of a mana investment. As a replacement , might I recommend Phyrexian Tower. It fits well with the minor sacrifice subtheme the deck has going for it and nets you mana. This paired with Sliver Queen as your commander to create some board presence in another wise uninteractive game can be a value engine fitting for that subtheme. I would also imagine that having Sliver Queen as a commander in a Lands build would throw some players in for a loop as far as what your deck hopes to accomplish over the long game.

If you want Bomberman to be your main wincon, there's no reason you have to wait until your next attack to win with your spirits. Altar of Dementia, Altar of the Brood, and Blasting Station will all do the trick with no additional setup. Using Altar of Dementia on yourself also puts combo pieces in your yard and makes Skullclamp and Replenish more effective.

Swap Oblivion Ring for Leonin Relic-Warder. They're essentially the same effect, and Warder gets you an extra combo with Animate Dead and friends. (Warder can also be sac'ed to permanent exile while Oring can't be.)

Cut Doomwake Giant. This is the top of your curve and it just gives things -1/-1 when it lands. If you really want more board control, Hellfire is much cleaner.

If you still need room Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Blind Obedience are both ok to cut. They're ok at slowing opponents down, but not the greatest at it.

This last suggestion's a little more for casual play, but for Black/White creature based decks I like to include Westvale AbbeyFlip in the landbase in case he game drags on and I need to recoup some life in an emergency.

2 weeks ago

Card to remove: From Beyond. This enchantment is kind of slow for token generation and ramping, and doesn't really help any combo outside of giving you once per turn fodder to use on Skullclamp. Being the same mana cost, you could swap it for Order and it wouldn't hurt your curve at all.

I do really like the combo of Hulk > Body Snatcher + Viscera Seer + Whatever, bring back Hulk via Snatcher, sac Hulk to get Mikaeus and Walking Ballista to win the game. Hulk is super easy to bring online and very consistent (as I've noticed in my Ghave list), so I definitely love seeing how other players use him in different colors.

Recommendation for the mana base: Phyrexian Tower. A nice accelerator on the turn you want to combo out (hey, get 3 mana out of that Bird or Arbor Elf, why don't you), but can also be utilized to sac Hulk that one time before you go get Viscera Seer as an outlet. You could probably drop a Forest or Swamp for it, honestly.

4 weeks ago

Hey Matrixxx999, great to see someone taking interest in card choices! I'll run over my reasonings for my exclusion of those card choices real quick, and I'll add them to the notable exclusions as well.

High Market, Phyrexian Tower: These look good at first glance, but there are some major downsides; first, for high market, it doesn't produce coloured mana, which you really want in this deck, and it's not actually that great of a sac outlet, only being a once-per-turn and giving nothing in return, I'd much rather be playing a coloured source in it's place. Second, for tower, I would totally run the card, if only it produced coloured mana without having to sacrifice a creature. Again, you really want coloured mana, and typically, you're only going to have 1 non-Varolz creature at a time, which you need to bank for pattern of rebirth and natural order, otherwise they become dead cards.

Reflecting Pool: I don't really need this in a 2-c deck, I'd rather play a basic, and have more resilience against blood moon

Sensei's Divining Top: Actually a bit slow for the deck, if you're going turn 1 dork -> turn 2 varolz, it doesn't afford you much time or mana to actually use it efficiently, it does smooth out every turn after those, but those are going to be the key turns when you're looking to have action in your mulligans

Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood: I actually highly suggest both of these for potential budget builds or more midrange builds, but because this is a budgetless build, I'd much rather be playing higher-powered draw like ad naus or necropotence, or just be playing tutors instead. You are also looking to win before running out of gas becomes an issue generally, so they're not as good here as they are in a Doomsday deck, because they can't serve the dual-purpose of cracking a pile.

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